FILE PHOTO: The sun is seen partially covered by the moon on Easter Island, 3700 km off the Chilean coast in the Pacific Ocean, on July 11, 2010. On November 14, 2012, a total solar eclipse starts at sunrise in the Northern Territory east of Darwin and then travels across the Gulf of Carpentaria and across Cape York, where the path of totality is about 140km wide. AFP PHOTO/Martin Bernetti Source: AFP

THE total solar eclipse that will plunge Cairns into darkness this month will also be visible as a partial eclipse across the rest of Australia.

Observers in southeast Queensland will see an 83 per cent solar eclipse; in Sydney 67 per cent of the sun will be covered - while it will appear half-obscured from Melbourne.

The path of the total solar eclipse on November 14, 2012. Best views are on beaches from Cairns north to Wonga Beach (north of Port Douglas). The greatest eclipse will be 2mins 4secs near Oak Beach, just south of Port Douglas.

Jane Morgan - manager of the Cosmos Centre in Charleville, where up to 78 per cent of the sun will be covered - is planning a special eclipse breakfast for observers to come and see the sun rise about 6am on Wednesday, November 14.

"The sun will come up with a bit of a bite out of it," she said. "We will put our solar glasses on to watch and have our telescope with a special filter on so we can see the partial eclipse."

Observers are warned not to look directly at the sun without special protection during any partial stage of the eclipse.

Morgan - who has seen eight solar eclipses - said the Centre had already taken plenty of bookings for the $25 breakfast.

The Brisbane Planetarium, at Mt Coot-tha gardens, is not planning anything for the day because curator Mark Rigby, another veteran of seeing many eclipses around the world, will be in Cairns for the latest event.

One technique he tried at an annual eclipse in Arizona, US, this May was to observe part of the event via the shadow cast on his hand from holding a kitchen strainer.

"It's just so easy to do," he said. "So long as you don't look through the holes at the sun."

The next total solar eclipse visible in Australia will be in 2028, when it will cover a much larger area in the southwest of Queensland.

Plenty of resources are available on the web on what to expect from the eclipse, including a clever use of Google's map feature that allows you to click on any location across Queensland.

The website will then bring up a table showing the time and duration of any total or partial eclipse you can see from there.

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